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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25344397">Poof goes the Dragon</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinkyPlotBunny/pseuds/KinkyPlotBunny'>KinkyPlotBunny</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Magic, brothers being brothers, dragon - who doesn't love a dragon?, young loki, young thor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:27:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,522</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25344397</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinkyPlotBunny/pseuds/KinkyPlotBunny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There are reports of a dragon in the forests of Asgard. Something has to be done about it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Poof goes the Dragon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is uncharacteristically non angsty. I'm sorry? I can explain. It's inspired by an off the cuff story I once told a six year old. Hence the lack of angst. I wrote it last night in one go, including a twist that wasn't planned. I guess I'll always be a pantser...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a warm summer evening when Odin’s ravens came back with tidings of a dragon. The king’s young sons were intrigued, but for different reasons. Thor, already almost as tall as his father, shoulders broadening, often times unable to channel his raw strength, immediately asked his father for permission to hunt the beast down.</p><p>“I could take a few men. Ride out. Slay the dragon. Please, father! Please may I ride against the beast?”</p><p>His younger brother Loki bit his lip, slender fingers playing with one of his daggers, mind racing already.</p><p>Odin laughed.</p><p>“You’re a little young to ride out against a dragon, Thor. I will send a dozen of the palace guards to deal with it.”</p><p>“Father!” Thor pouted. “I’m old enough! What’s all the sword training for if—”</p><p>“Silence. You know what whining like a little girl gets you.”</p><p>Thor’s shoulders slumped.</p><p>“Nothing, father.”</p><p>Loki still hadn’t said anything, but he was looking very intensely at Hugin. After a while the raven’s head turned to return the kid’s stare. They stayed like that for a while longer, and then Loki straightened and very subtly nodded at Hugin.</p><p> </p><p>Once the sun had set, Thor sneaked out of his chambers, got his horse and rode out in the direction his father’s ravens had reported. He rode for almost an hour, and then he had to get off his horse and continue through the woods on foot. By the time he got to the dragon’s lair he wasn’t so sure this had been a good idea. Maybe his father had been right. Maybe he was too young to be out here, alone, at night, trying to fight a dragon. But then again, if he managed to slay the beast, his father the king would finally have to admit that he wasn’t a child any more. He briefly wondered if he should have asked Loki to come along, but his brother had been completely unimpressed by Thor’s attempts at dragon conversation, his nose in one of his damn books as always. Thor shook his head. He really didn’t understand what went on in Loki’s head. He loved a good prank, but he usually played them <em>on Thor</em> instead of coming up with something together. Deep in thought Thor almost fell down a little slope. He froze, fighting to regain his balance, and then he saw it. The entrance to a little cave. Well, probably not that little if there really was a dragon living inside. Thor held his breath and gripped his sword more tightly. And then all hell broke loose.</p><p>The beast came stomping out of its cave, wings uncurling as soon as it passed the entrance, fire flickering at its nostrils. Thor let out a little sound that he really, really hoped nobody had heard, and bravely lifted his sword. The dragon shook its head, eyed the young prince and took a deep breath. Thor didn’t know all that much about dragons, but he reckoned inhale of air would probably be followed by exhale of fire. Which couldn’t be good. He dived behind a huge rock and ducked his head just in time. A second later he felt a wave of heat more intense than any fire he’d ever seen pass over him, and then he realised he didn’t have a plan. He started to sweat, and it wasn’t just the heat. He always made fun of his brother’s complicated plans, plans he usually couldn’t keep up with. They bored him and he stopped listening and Loki lost his patience with him and just did it on his own. What he wouldn’t give for one of his little brother’s cunning plans right now. Damn it he should have asked him to come along.</p><p>The dragon sniffed, trying to find the little intruder. Thor pressed himself against the rock and barely dared to breathe. Stupid, stupid idea to come here on his own when his father obviously thought it was a task for a dozen grown men. For a while, there was only the dragon’s sniffing and the noises of the nightly forest, and then the sniffing stopped. Thor waited for a moment longer, and then he very slowly, very carefully poked his head out behind the rock. Only to find himself face to face with the dragon. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. His sword trembled in his hand but he couldn’t lift it. The dragon inhaled.</p><p>And then it went ‘poof’ in a massive cloud of green mist.</p><p>Thor stared at the cloud. It was quickly thinning, disappearing into thin air, and from behind him, high above his head, Thor heard a laugh. A laugh he knew very well. He wheeled around. Loki was sitting on a branch of the highest tree, laughing so much he was crying.</p><p>“You should see your face, dear brother,” he got out between bursts of laughter, and then he shimmered green, turned into a squirrel and ran down the tree trunk in an elegant spiral. As he hit the forest floor he turned back, still laughing, and clasped his brother’s shoulder.</p><p>“Not. Funny,” Thor hissed between clenched teeth, which only sent Loki into another laughing fit.</p><p>“Hel yes it is! Also my most impressive illusion, if I may say so myself!”</p><p>A small smile tugged at the corner of Thor’s mouth. He shrugged.</p><p>“Well. Maybe a <em>little </em>funny.”</p><p>Still chuckling Loki looped his arm over Thor’s shoulder.</p><p>“Last one home loses,” he said and turned into a nightingale already in flight.</p><p>And that’s when they heard the noise.</p><p> </p><p>Nightingale Loki missed a flap of his wings and dropped like a stone before catching his rhythm. Thor froze, sword raised, pale and tense.</p><p>“Loki,” he hissed under his breath. “That’s the real dragon. Right? It’s not you this time?”</p><p>The little bird that was his brother landed on Thor’s shoulder, the one not holding the sword.</p><p>“For real this time.”</p><p>The bird sounded worried. It was never a good sign when his smart little brother sounded worried.</p><p>“What do we do?” Thor asked, nervously turning in a slow circle.</p><p>“Stop moving. Let me think.”</p><p>“Think faster.”</p><p>The bird dug his little talons into Thor’s shoulder.</p><p>“Stop talking. It’s annoying.”</p><p>Thor grit his teeth, but he stayed silent.</p><p> </p><p>The noise was closer now.</p><p>“Loki?”</p><p>“All right, fine, here’s what we do. You stay where you are, draw its attention to yourself.”</p><p>“Stellar plan, Loki.”</p><p>“Shut up. Just do it.”</p><p>And Loki took off in the direction of the noise.</p><p> </p><p>A few minutes later Thor saw flames between the trees, dancing in the air, moving towards him. He swallowed. Closing his eyes for a moment he thought of his mother, and then he lifted his sword.</p><p>“Hey, lizard, I’m here!”</p><p>The dragon’s head snapped up and it sniffed, and then its golden eyes stared at the prince. A small flame licked at its snout. It huffed out a cloud of sparks, and then it slowly moved closer. Thor gripped his sword, palms sweaty, and mumbled under his breath:</p><p>“Now, Loki, please, whatever you’re planning, now!”</p><p>For a horrible moment he wondered if Loki had just fled. Flown away in his bird form, unseen, unnoticed, and left him here to die of his own stupidity. And then Thor saw movement in a tree behind the dragon. The air shimmered green, and all of a sudden his little brother sat on a branch, pressing a finger to his lips and shaking his head. Thor understood at once. He looked away from his brother and directly at the dragon, waving his sword. From his peripheral vision Thor could see Loki raise his hands, but he forced himself not to look. The dragon was really close now. Thor felt the heat of its breath on his face. The dragon straightened to its full height, flapped its wings once and inhaled. Thor closed his eyes. Nothing happened. Thor carefully opened his eyes just in time to see a wave of green light hit the dragon in the back of its head. The dragon wobbled. Loki fired another wave. The dragon made a weird sound, crashed to the forest floor and lay still. Thor prodded it with his foot.</p><p>“Is it dead?”</p><p>“Don’t think so,” Loki panted. “Not enough… fire power.”</p><p>“You magicked the dragon unconscious?! That was your great plan? Why not just…I don’t know, make it go ‘poof’?”</p><p>“That’s not how any of that—” Loki dropped off his branch.</p><p>“Loki!”</p><p>Thor ran over to his little brother. He was laying under the tree, awake, but very pale.</p><p>“Now would be a good time to, you know—”</p><p>Loki weakly mimicked a beheading motion. Right. Slaying the dragon. Thor lifted his sword and brought it down on the beast’s neck before it could wake up.</p><p> </p><p>And then he half dragged, half carried his very exhausted little brother back to his horse.</p><p> </p><p>Hugin and Munin looked suspiciously smug when the guards reported that they had found the dragon slain, but they never said anything. The dragon’s death remained a mystery, myths growing around it even more quickly than usual in those cases.</p>
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